Stock markets and commodities begin the month of February bearish on concerns over European public debt. The U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly falls to 9.7 percent.
Hi. I’m SAYOKO MURASE. Welcome to the “Weekly Market Wrap” for Friday, February 5, 2009.
Major U.S. markets were lower for the week.
The Dow Industrials ended the week LOWER, and the S&P 500 Index was DOWN. The Nasdaq Composite Index DECLINED.
Gold prices dropped this week. Gold was selling for about $1054 an ounce this afternoon.
Crude oil futures fell sharply this week. Crude prices were trading at $69 a barrel on Friday afternoon.
On the economic front, the economy shed another 20,000 jobs in January. The biggest contributor to the decline was in the construction industry, shedding 75,000 positions. However, the unemployment rate surprisingly shrank to 9.7 percent from 10 percent. Analysts questioned how these two indicators could be moving in opposite directions. Still, there was more good news than bad in the report and economists believe the unemployment rate has peaked at 10.1 percent.
Ben Bernanke was sworn in this week for another four-year term as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. In his swearing-in speech, he made the case for Fed independence, saying it "allows the Federal Open Market Committee to make monetary policy in the longer-term economic interests of the American people, rather than in the service of short-term political imperatives." Bernanke also said the bank will work to increase transparency by increasing available information for the public.
Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) sold $8 billion of senior debt on Thursday to help finance its purchase of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI). The offering is more than twice the size of Berkshire's largest investment-grade bond. Standard & Poor’s said yesterday that it is downgrading Berkshire from AAA to AA+ because the acquisition of Burlington Northern reduces its liquidity.
In earnings news this week, Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) reported profits of 40 cents per share on Wednesday, beating consensus estimates of 35 cents.
Also on Wednesday, Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) announced it earned 49 cents per share. Analysts were expecting earnings of 50 cents per share.
Reporting on Thursday, media giant Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) beat the street with 55 cents per share, ex-items. Consensus estimates called for profits of 52 cents per share.
On Friday, health insurer Aetna (NYSE:AET) missed analyst expectations by announcing fourth quarter results of 40 cents per share. The consensus earnings estimate was 42 cents per share.
This is the “Weekly Market Wrap” for Friday, February 5. Please join us on Monday for the “Week Ahead Market Report.”
For MarketNewsVideo.com, I'm SAYOKO MURASE.
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